After Sandy, How to Recover Stock Certificates

11/9/2012 11:22AM

One of the bigger custodians/clearinghouses for Wall Street, Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., reported that a flooded vault had jeopardized roughly 1.3 million stock certificates it had stored there. MarketWatch's Chuck Jaffe discusses how to get back those valuable pieces of paper.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... you're looking flooding and in turn outside the New York Stock Exchange plane seen the team on shore Lance week and the resulting damage that occurred ... and that damage includes some very important documents like stock certificates ... and here to talk about how to recover some stock Stockton to be gets this Chuck Jaffe for MarketWatch Chuck a goat ... in the store is amazing because it is digital ... there ... were still talking to opt out ... damages to paper ... explain you how how you can do ... why why this is still an issue and and if it is heightened about recovery ... well the good news is ... that he's always order marginally in issue it it sounds worse than it is a need ... from the standpoint of being institutions ... of Depository Trust Clearing Corporation which has the balls in New York City the ball was flooded with seawater ... it had one point three million certificates ... the estimates of the value range ... north of thirteen trillion dollars effective ... was it also had electronic Records and disappoint ... electronic records for sufficient ... so that you don't need to have the certificate sent ... to separate electronic records were kept ... absolutely ... aam and so ... functionally they had this shot down and start to go to rethink what they wanna do with the certificates and what they can read dude cetera ... when somebody has to take the kids that were held in their ball ... functionally they were also ... aware that electronically I was like this is your only record so since this is something to learn your ally ... and I think it's mostly for Iraq my column about a woman in New Jersey ... who had come from her parents she had the papers we are ... going into the storm she doesn't want to get what she needs in her car ... and basically train crash ... takes our car ... with the front seats on and everything else and then the overture to get ... through this it's easy enough to avoid ... but it you're gonna insist on having paper certificates ... take and ... make a copy of them keep the top three separate from the originals and then if anything happens like this you got a place to go to say ... here's all my information ... to make it easier ... putting them in her case where ... the certificates are real and ... does not have too much trouble ... getting ... the certificate replies to the point that when you when you're preparing for a stormy night you load up on a flashlight Sandy nonperishable food is up but ... there are deals that did ... to to think about that one paperwork and securing that ... if however that the board to get them and what are some of the ways that people can do to to get that stuff back ... well there's a variety of things in some of it depends on how you own this summer to hold a certificate in ... socially and you have everything we have the front and back you're gonna be able to contact ... the transfer agent and figure it out but ... the thing is important is finding out who the transfer AG is and I'm going to read their process ... the SCC has a well defined process ... and the only real issue you have ... in Rachel's case ... she was looking for her parents are potentially valuing and then selling some of the securities pushing out can sell them to Joshi first replaces ... so ... that's the problem by ... your contract you know as the company go to the investor relations department Corporation a cure all but ... as a Hoosier trades breaking ... their ... record a new ... European will work with them ... to reconstruct the certificate to get back the paperwork that you need it won't ... be fought ... an insult to injury honesty ... and truth is ... ten percent of the kids are really necessary ... I know people like to have them ... but this is one of those times you go I'd rather just be in St and and ... this is not the only disaster go back to nine eleven where after the towers fell and some papers everywhere ... well received ... electronic entry is good enough ... those folks who rely a lot of papers ... many of the old fashioned